Yuan Longping, “Father of Hybrid Rice”, Delivers Speech on Sea Rice

China’s long coastline provides a big opportunity for cultivation of sea-rice but more research is needed to optimize the species, experts said, after China’s “father of hybrid rice,” Yuan Longping, revealed that a plan to cultivate rice near the coast is being researched by his team. Yuan, 86, head of the sea-rice research and development center, delivered a speech at the World Life Science Conference in Beijing on Wednesday [2 November 2016], saying that a newly founded research center in Qingdao, East China’s Shandong Province, planned to expand the yield of sea-rice to 200 kilograms per mu (0.067 hectare) within three years, the Xinhua News Agency reported…Full Article: ECNS.cn Nov 2016

Key Point

China has more than 1 billion mu [~66.6 million hectares] of saline-alkali soil that is not being cultivated, including 10 million mu [~666,666 hectares] of intertidal zone [seashore] soil.

ChinaAg Comments

In April 2017, the sea rice center will plant 2 hectares of sea rice on an experimental plot situated north of Jiaozhou Bay (Qingdao), Shandong Province.

In October 2016, Qingdao Sea Rice Research and Development Center was founded and will reportedly use gene sequencing technology to breed new strains of sea-rice. The center received CNY 100 million (US$14.8 million) as initial funding, with total funding expected to reach CNY 2 billion [~US$295 million] in the future.

In 1991, Chen Risheng identified ‘Sea-rice 86’ as a new species of seawater rice that could grow in saline-alkali soil along coastal areas. It was estimated that China has 100 million hectares of saline-alkali soil.

In 1986, China’s Chen Risheng (Zhanjiang Agriculture College alumnus) discovered a wild rice variety with high saline-alkali tolerance in Suixi County, Guangdong Province.